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Cover story STARTING OVER: I am an artist. I’m an old artist, and I’ve been an artist all my life. About ten years ago, I had a revelation, a Road-to-Damascus kind of St. Paul moment. At that time, I was 60 years old, and I had been an artist since I was about 10, when I painted my first oil painting. So I’ve been in the business of making art for 50 years. My road-to-Damascus revelation was this – I said to myself, “Listen, I’ve been doing something for all my life which is total nonsense. It is the most idiotic thing in the world, this thing called art!” And since then, I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been doing, and what art is. I now, more than ever, more than I did 10 years ago, think that art is what Marx said about Christianity – a “false consciousness.” It’s a kind of a religion for the godless world, and we’re coerced, forced into believing in it, under the premise that it’s a good, benign and refined thing. We’re under an umbrella of belief that art’s really good for us. I’ve tried to find out how it’s good for us, but have been unable to do so. So the impetus behind By Alex Melamid IN JULY, ARTENOL FOUNDER ALEX MELAMID gave a lecture via Skype at the Kopkind Colony in Vermont. He addressed contemporary art’s current malaise and offered several proposals for reinvigorating it. Those who attended the workshop were asked to complete surveys on their interest in the arts and to offer their own vision for an art of the future, an art that had been “made great again.” Mr. Melamid’s talk is transcribed here in full, as well as his responses to selected questions from the audience. Artenol managing editor David Dann acted as the evening’s emcee and Kopkind Colony board president JoAnn Wypijewski hosted the event. – Editor creating Artenol, our arts magazine, was to uncover what art is, to find out whether I’m right that it’s a false consciousness that serves the upper classes in order to subdue and keep in check the general population. Art does this not out of malice, of course, for the art world’s insiders and institutions also believe that art is a force for good. But what art is very good at is keeping things in order. Now, with the current revolt of the masses against the political elite in the 2016 presidential campaign, it’s really interesting to note that art is also a staunch defender of the status quo. Traditionally, modern art has been about starting something new, creating a catalyst for change. Nowadays, it’s just the opposite: art is a catalyst of the status quo. If you observe the way the art world works, you’ll quickly understand that absolutely everything is controlled. Neither artists nor art institutions are interested in any change at all. Change is what they’re afraid of – and rightly so, because they’re doing quite well financially, myself included. But for me, it was important to create Artenol so that IS CONTEMPORARY ART 'IDIOTIC,' 'SENSELESS'? IN A 24 FALL 2016
MAKE ART GREAT AGAIN RETHINKING ART KOPKIND WORKSHOP, ALEX MELAMID MAKES THE CASE 25 SKYPED IN Artenol founder Alex Melamid addresses a group of journalists and community activists via Skype at the Kopkind Colony in July. Managing editor David Dann, left, emceed the event. Debbie Nathan photo
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